The Book Plank

The Myth of Rain by Seanan McGuire [no synopsis availabe] Seanan McGuire is better know to my under her pseudonym Mira Grant, with which she wrote some very creepy horror books. A while ago I read a short story in the Dead Man's Hand anthology about wasps which was part of her InCryptid stories. It was different that what I read in the Mira Grant books, in a very good way. Now when I came across The Myth of Rain I readily jumped the occasion to read it and once again I am amazed.  The story of The Myth of Rain picked up in a way that it readily piques your interstest. It begins with the story of a female spotted owl and how their cry is different. Now from this first sentence the story could go any which way. A documentary of sort. Like Marie Brennan's A Natural History of Dragons. Soon you are introduced to Julie, who is on the look out of owls, observing them and capturing them. For a reason, because at the end of the capture she mentions that monsters are coming to t

Late Nights at the Cape and Cane by Max Gladstone, Uncanny #1 So yes another Max Gladstone short story, that is two in a row already. Last week I reviewed A Kiss With Teeth from Max Gladstone which was pretty cool. Last Tuesday night I found out that a new magazine was release, Uncanny, that feature a story of Max Gladstone as well. And being a big fan there was only one possibility left. Review the story. There isn't a given synopsis of the story but if I would have to describe it Max Gladstone takes you to an alternate urban fantasy realm where you can't always win...  Late Night at the Cape and Cane is a short story that has approx 3k words and having read several of his stories this is once again a story in a different direction but perhaps the closest linked to his Craft Sequence. As I already said the setting of the story is really in the lines of Urban Fantasy and Max Gladstone isn't afraid to show some of the magic associated with this theme. In the story of

Dangerous Women by George R.R. Martin and Gardner R. Dozois All new and original to this volume, the 21 stories in Dangerous Women include work by twelve New York Times bestsellers, and seven stories set in the authors’ bestselling continuities—including a new “Outlander” story by Diana Gabaldon, a  tale of Harry Dresden’s world by Jim Butcher, a story from Lev Grossman set in the world of The Magicians, and a 35,000-word novella by George R. R. Martin about the Dance of the Dragons, the vast civil war that tore Westeros apart nearly two centuries before the events of A Game of Thrones. Also included are original stories of dangerous women--heroines and villains alike--by Brandon Sanderson, Joe Abercrombie, Sherilynn Kenyon, Lawrence Block, Carrie Vaughn,  S. M. Stirling, Sharon Kay Penman, and many others. Writes Gardner Dozois in his Introduction, “Here you’ll find no hapless victims who stand by whimpering in dread while the male hero fights the monster or clashes s